LeBron pushes past flu as Heat push past Suns 97-88

November 18, 2012|By Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun Sentinel

PHOENIX — The concern became real when the team bus left for the morning shootaround and LeBron James wasn't on it.

"He doesn't miss much," Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after Saturday night's 97-88 victory over the Phoenix Suns at US Airways Center. "I can’t remember the last time he missed a practice or a shootaround. So when he missed today, obviously that makes you wonder, and you know that it's pretty serious."

The doubts increased when James asked out during the first quarter, returning to the locker room, where he said his flu-like symptoms turned into something more like the real thing.

With Dwyane Wade missing his second consecutive game with a sprained left foot, and with Mario Chalmers wearing a protective sleeve on his right arm in the wake of the triceps injury that sidelined him for the final three quarters of Thursday's victory over the Denver Nuggets, this was a night the Heat needed James.

He was scoreless in a first quarter that ended 23-23.

He didn't have an assist in a first half that ended 52-52.

And then he said enough is enough, simply unwilling to be outplayed by former Heat first-round pick Michael Beasley, even in his diminished state.

He started to come around in the third quarter, when the Heat pushed their lead to 15. He gave a final push in the fourth after all of that lead evaporated, his reverse fastbreak dunk staking the Heat to a nine-point lead and a driving layup later putting the Heat up six with 43.9 seconds to play.

Rare is a 21-point performance by James noteworthy. This was that rare night.

"We appreciated him even going and playing," Spoelstra said. "There was a little bit of doubt with us."

Those doubts increased when James left for the locker room in the first quarter to get fluids.

"When's the last time we ever did that?" Spoelstra asked of taking James off the floor in a first quarter.

But with the opportunity to make it a 4-2 trip instead of a 3-3 nine-day run, James pushed on.

"It takes a lot for me not to play, not to be out there with my teammates," he said, with Wade missing the trip-opening victory over the Atlanta Hawks with a virus. "Me at 50 percent or 60 percent is better than me not playing at all.

"I didn't have much energy, but I wanted to be out there with my guys."

Especially with center Chris Bosh, who kept the Heat afloat by hitting his final six shots of the first half, closing with a game-high 24 points.

"So efficient," James marveled of Bosh. "He gets his points so quietly. We all feed off of that."

Bosh said the poise to play through James' uneven start also was the poise that allowed the Heat to hold on after blowing that 15-point third-quarter lead.

"We stayed with it," he said. "Nobody panicked, nobody got beside themselves. We just stuck with the game plan and stuck with each other, and it worked out."

A game after almost blowing a 19-point third-quarter lead against the Nuggets, the Heat returned to that script.

But after the Suns tied it early in the fourth, a Ray Allen bank shot, a James layup, a Chalmers 3-pointer and James' reverse dunk staked the Heat to an 86-79 lead with 5:53 to play.

But just as the earlier 15-point lead vanished, so did most of that this one, the Suns drawing within 90-88 with 2:11 to play on a Goran Dragic layup.

James and Beasley then each missed jumpers, Beasley's rimming out, with Bosh then working his way to the line with 1:28 to play.

Bosh made both free throws for a 92-88 lead, with James following with a twisting layup for a 94-88 lead with 45.2 seconds to play effectively ending it.

Beasley, who outscored James 12-9 in the first half, shot just 1 of 7 for two points in the second half, his starting job in question when it was over.

Heat forward Udonis Haslem went into the game eight rebounds from passing Alonzo Mourning for the Heat's all-time lead. He closed with six, all in the second half, with the opportunity to now take the franchise lead at AmericanAirlines Arena, where the Heat next play on Wednesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks, after a much-needed rest.

"If you felt the way I felt," Bosh said of the impending break, "you would need a month."